Case Number 15051

BEFORE THE RAINS

The Charge

Passion has its price

Opening Statement

The Merchant Ivory company presents Indian director Santosh Sivan's English
language debut. Set in 1937 India, Before the Rains looks at the
repercussions of an interracial romance between a British settler and his Indian
housemaid. Director-cinematographer Sivan is a masterful visual storyteller and
his skill with the camera coupled with a strong script makes this story more
substantial than the usual period romance.

Facts of the Case

Henry Moores (Linus Roache, The Namesake) is a British spice planter
in southern India during the days leading up to the country's struggle for
independence. Henry's grand plans for his farm and the surrounding region
involve cutting a road through the jungle. This will require the cooperation of
the local community, but Henry's optimistic about this venture between the two
cultures. The British bankers lending the money for Henry's project think it is
a manageable risk, so long as the road is finished before the monsoon
season.

Henry's desire for cross-cultural relations also extends to his engaging in
an affair with his housemaid. Sajani (Nandita Das) and Henry are careful to
conduct their adulterous romance with caution and stealth, but Henry's
right-hand man, T.K. Neelan (Rahul Bose), has his suspicions. One day the lovers
are spotted at a pond and whispered rumors begin to circulate in the village.
Fleeing her abusive husband, Sajani arrives at the Moores' house, but she is
turned away. The revelation of their affair would destroy his marriage and
jeopardize the road project, so Henry instructs T.K. to send Sajani away. Her
disappearance soon arouses more questions and the two men must decide how far
they will go to protect Henry's secret.

The Evidence

Before the Rains starts out like a standard romance set against an
exotic backdrop. The beautiful scenery of lush, green mountains and dense
jungles teem with life and the possibility of new discoveries. This is
environment we meet the two lovers, discretely kissing in a quiet room, but it
isn't long before we realize something is amiss. Sajani hides so as not to be
seen with Henry when they leave in his truck. T.K. watches the passing vehicle
with knowing eyes but he says nothing to the other Indian workers. Before the
first act is through, director Santosh Sivan pulls the rug out from under this
interracial romance. Henry and Sajani are not star-crossed lovers; they are
reckless cheaters. Sajani's husband, in an arranged marriage, is jealous and
abusive. Henry's wife Laura (Jennifer Ehle, Sunshine (1999)) is growing
increasingly impatient with her husband's coldness.

Linus Roache is convincing as the morally confused Henry. He seems like an
admirable protagonist at first, because he believes he can work harmoniously
with the villagers. He loves Sajani, but he's not willing to risk losing his
family and farm to satisfy his heart. It is his cold, logical reaction when his
affair might be discovered that makes him more conflicted and less likeable.
Furthermore, when his actions draw T.K. into the situation, Henry is faced with
a choice between preserving his community reputation and his friendship with his
loyal foreman.

As the web of lies gets thicker, it is T.K. who stands to lose the most.
Already regarded as a Westernized Indian due to his close association with
Henry, T.K. is a bit of a pariah. His community standing isn't helped when he
continues to stand by his British employer during pro-independence
demonstrations. Rahul Bose gives a quiet but strong performance as a loyal man
who doesn't want to stick his neck out unnecessarily. His controlled body
language conveys the tension of having allegiances to both cultures.

You barely have to scratch the surface to understand that this story is
about British colonial guilt. Henry's idealism is reinforced by an attitude of
British supremacy, and his success is achieved by the labor of the native
population. He wants to be successful in India but he dismisses local customs.
Consider the parallel between his liberating passion for Sajani while his wife
is away, and the potential for a successful enterprise operating at the
outskirts of the British Empire. Sure, he loves Sajani, but he'll never marry
her. The love affair is just another freedom he enjoys while away from home --
and England will always be his home. While these themes may seem obvious,
Sivan's direction keeps the story focused on the characters as people and not as
mere symbols. It would have been easy to make Henry a loathsome pillager of the
land, but he's presented as a flawed man trying to cover up a mistake -- one
that turns tragic. T.K. too comes off as passive initially, but he's revealed to
be a strong and thoughtful man trying to find a compromise to his divided
loyalties.

Sivan established himself as a cinematographer in India prior to his first
directorial assignment, Halo (1997), and he often does double duty on his
films. I have seen one other of his films prior to this movie,
Theeviravaathi: The Terrorist (1999), which was a thoughtful (and
hopeful) portrait of a suicide bomber preparing for her mission. That movie
looked cold and rain-soaked, but Sivan's compositions were almost hypnotically
beautiful. For Before the Rains, his camera again captures breathtakingly
gorgeous images: sunny mountain views and tranquil clearings in the dense
jungle. This DVD does a great job of preserving those wonderful images. The
picture shows no physical or digital defects. The image is sharp and the colors
are strong, the greens and blues being especially vibrant. The 1.78:1 anamorphic
presentation differs from the theatrical 1.85:1 aspect ratio reported on IMDb
but the compositions work just fine as they appear here.

There are two choices for audio presentation, 5.1 and 2.0 Dolby Digital, and
either one sounds fine. The audio track won't give your speakers too much of a
workout, but the dialogue is strong and balanced nicely against the music and
sound effects. The surround track makes the background sound effects a bit more
distinct.

The DVD packaging does not list any supplemental materials, but the disc
includes the theatrical trailer and an audio commentary with Sivan and Roache.
The director and actor have a casual but informative talk with Roache playing
the part of a pseudo-interviewer to prompt Sivan's comments. There are
occasional pauses in their commentary, but they conduct a good talk about the
development of the story and characters as well as recalling details of the
shoot.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

Both Henry and T.K. are fully developed characters, so it's slightly
frustrating that their dilemma arises from some plainly bad decisions. This is
the kind of story that requires the protagonists to dig themselves a deeper hole
before they can get out, but there are a couple of times when their actions just
seem stupid. (To be fair, my frustration stems from judging the characters'
actions through a 21st century mindset.) Their mistakes result from the limited
choices the characters would have had at that period in history, but even when
it's too late to come clean with the truth, they could have at least invented a
better lie rather than just play dumb.

It's also disappointing that Sajani isn't given more to do, considering her
importance to the story. If we are to believe that Henry loves her, she needs to
have more personality than just the pretty hired help. Reducing her to a
hysterical, discarded other woman is a disservice.

Closing Statement

The specter of colonialism hangs over the setting but the story is not
overshadowed by history and politics. At the heart of this movie is the testing
of loyalties between two men at a time when cross-cultural partnerships were a
sign of cultural betrayal. The movie looks gorgeous and the performances are
convincingly conflicted.